''Bushwick'' is a 2017 American

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and written by

Nick Damici Nick Damici is an American actor and screenwriter known for such films as '' Mulberry Street'' and '' Stake Land''. Early life Nick Damici grew up in Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s and early 1970s. His father was a bartender, and Damici would o ...

and Graham Reznick. The film follows a military veteran (

Dave Bautista David Michael Bautista Jr. (born January 18, 1969) is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the most prolific professional wrestlers of his generation, he rose to fame for his multiple stints in WWE betwee ...

) and a graduate student (

Brittany Snow Brittany Anne Snow (born March 9, 1986) is an American actress. She came to prominence for her role in the CBS soap opera ''Guiding Light'' (1998–2001), for which she won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress and was nominated for two o ...

) who are caught in an invasion of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

by a

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

, as they work together to rescue family members and reach a civilian evacuation point.

Plot

In the

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southe ...

neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, second-year

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

graduate student Lucy and her boyfriend Jose exit a

subway train Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separated rapid transit line below ground surface through a tu ...

into an empty station, when a man runs in on fire. Jose tries to investigate but is killed in an explosion. Lucy tries to find help in the chaos and is chased by two men into a house owned by Stupe, a former

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

hospital corpsman, who kills the men. Stupe reveals

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

has been declared and that he will try to find his family in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

, and Lucy decides to join him to rescue her grandmother. Along the way, Stupe gets injured and trains Lucy in giving first aid and shooting a gun. The pair reach Lucy's grandmother's house, but they find her already dead from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

, and flee pursuing gunmen by seeking refuge in the house of Belinda, Lucy's sister. A

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

breaks in but is subdued and interrogated by Stupe. The mercenary reveals that

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

has

seceded Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal is the c ...

from the United States alongside

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, alongside parts of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, to form the New American Coalition (NAC). The NAC planned to fight an

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...

in American cities, specifically targeting neighborhoods with "defenseless" minorities such as Bushwick to seize first, but they did not account for such fierce armed resistance from the civilian populace. Stupe convinces the mercenary to reveal the

DMZ A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary ...

, where the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

is extracting non-combatants: Grover Cleveland Park in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. Stupe knocks out the mercenary and the trio set off for the park. Along the way, the trio witness citizen uprisings in the streets and encounter James and his mother, who take Belinda hostage in their home and order Stupe and Lucy to organize a resistance cell of evacuees and gang members seeking refuge at the local church; there, the church's priest, the intended leader of the resistance, kills himself, but the others agree to fight. As they wait for James, his mother, and Belinda to arrive at their rally point in a

laundromat A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes and some household textiles are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, ...

, Stupe reveals his family died in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and that he was trying to abandon Lucy on the way to Hoboken, but admits he is glad they stuck together. However, when he tries to go to the washroom, he encounters a scared teenage girl hiding inside, who mistakenly shoots and kills him in a panic. Despite the loss, Lucy, Belinda, and the resistance leave for Queens. The evacuees reach the DMZ, where the U.S. Army is already battling the mercenaries, and the resistance fights their way to the rescue helicopters. During the fight, Lucy and Belinda stick together, but Belinda is shot in the leg; Lucy tries to save her and is shot and killed. Belinda cries in horror as resistance fighters carry her away, as the shot pans to reveal

burning.

Cast

as Stupe *

as Lucy * Angelic Zambrana as Belinda *

Jeff Lima Jeff Lima may refer to: * Jeff Lima (rugby league) * Jeff Lima (actor) Jeff Lima is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role as Leon Cruz on ''Chicago Fire (TV series), Chicago Fire''. Early life Jeff Lima was born in the Eas ...

as Gregory * Paco Lozano as Priest *

Christian Navarro Christian Lee Navarro (born August 21, 1991) is an American actor known for playing Tony Padilla in the Netflix series ''13 Reasons Why''. He also had a recurring role in the HBO series ''Vinyl'' as he works on other movie projects such as ''Ca ...

as Eduardo * Arturo Castro as Jose *

Jeremie Harris Jeremie Harris is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayal of Ptonomy Wallace in FX's ''Legion''. Biography Jeremie Harris grew up in New Rochelle where he had ambitions to become a basketball player. He gave up on this dream w ...

as J.P. *

Myra Lucretia Taylor Myra Lucretia Taylor (born July 9, 1960) is an American actress and singer. She received Tony Awards nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Gran Georgeanna in the Broadway musical ''Tina'' (2019). She also rece ...

as Ma * Alex Breaux as Lieutenant Brewer

Production

On March 4, 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion would direct the disaster action thriller film ''Bushwick'' based on the script by

and Graham Reznick, while producers would be XYZ Films' Nate Bolotin and Bullet Pictures' Adam Folk.

Jane Levy Jane Colburn Levy ( ; born ) is an American actress. After attending the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, she debuted as the original Mandy Milkovich on the Showtime comedy-drama '' Shameless'' (2011). Levy left ''Shameless'' following its fir ...

was attached to play the female lead role of Lucy. On September 9, 2015,

also joined the film to play war veteran Stupe. On November 4, 2015,

was cast in the film, replacing Levy. The score was composed by rapper and producer

Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerg ...

Lakeshore Records Lakeshore Village Entertainment, LLC was an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum. Lakeshore Entertainment is headquartered in Bev ...

has released the soundtrack.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

on the film began early December 2015 in

Release

The movie premiered in the US at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

January 21, 2017 and internationally at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

in the

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 in France, May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the C ...

section on May 25, 2017 before being released globally on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

August 25, 2017.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 5.44/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Bushwick''s sociopolitical subtext gives it more heft than the average action thriller, but those ideas are given short shrift in what amounts to a disappointing shoot-'em-up." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Simon Crook for ''Empire'' praised the film calling it a brilliant

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

with a political punch and called for a sequel. Geoff Berkshire at ''Variety'' wrote that "Even if the low-budget execution is uneven at times, there's enough snap to the filmmaking, and enough raw power in the premise, to make for solid B-movie excitement. Chuck Bowen of ''Slant Magazine'' called it "a genre film with a refreshing sense of political infrastructure".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title 2017 action thriller films 2017 films American action thriller films American disaster films Films set in Brooklyn Films set in Queens, New York Films shot in New York City One-shot films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion 2010s American films English-language action thriller films